I was going to wait until a particular thing was ready to be shown before I updated again, but one of the purposes of this blog is to go through the process of an independent production from start to finish. Giving people a look at the process and the hassles and the blood and sweat and tears that come with this thing.
So today we'll talk about conception. No, I don't mean making babies.
What I mean is the pre-writing process of conceiving a story. My mentor once told me that pastors often end up preaching what they need to hear, too. Something of their life ends up influencing their work and I think that's a process God uses. With fiction writing, where thematic elements are the seeds that grow into particular, structured stories, I find that I often mythologize the things going on around me in my life. Biblical lessons, personal lessons in my walk with God, the mistakes that people and institutions make around me and how people react to them.
This doesn't mean I merely relay events or ideas - that's far too simple and just bad writing to me. It's the heart of those matters that interest me, and the ways those events and ideas play out in life. For instance - early versions of Edira City were thematically drawn from the things that came with my age and spiritual maturity level at the time. The theme driving the catalyst events was the idea of seeing hundreds of women who were all exactly like your wife, but none of them actually were. It's that insane time in a young man's life when he first arrives at Bible College and isn't quite sure how God works those things out. The underlying motivation in the story was anger with God for events beyond your control in the past.
Both of those elements are still present in the story but, like me, they have matured into more complex, adult ideas. Lessons I've learned as a man, lessons I've learned in my walk with God about people and community and singleness and all those things. But as I have matured I've come to see that both of those things - pursuit of a thing and anger over past things share the same root - waiting on God. On His timing and purposes. It is in hindsight where we learn that the things that hurt the worst were for incredible purposes and that we create our own confusion by not taking the time to wait on Him and relate to Him as we presently are.
And those are only a single character's thematic journey. There are other things relating to the church and spiritual gifts and legalism and how a people, as a singular group, interact with God. There are around five main characters all with distinct journeys and struggles. It's going to be quite a ride.
More as we go. | 